


Awakening the gay in you

by Yoshishisha



Category: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: (except not 5 because i only did 3), 5+1 Things, Crushes, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22205560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoshishisha/pseuds/Yoshishisha
Summary: Prompt: Penny Haywood really doesn't know just how many girls she's inadvertently helped realise they aren't straight. Until one of them tells her.
Relationships: Badeea Ali/Penny Haywood, One-sided Everyone/Penny Haywood
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15
Collections: Harry Potter Rare Pair Bingo: Round One!





	Awakening the gay in you

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the hp rarepair bingo! I didn't think I'd be starting a new tag, but Penny/Badeea just decided to happen here and I'm glad it did! Hope you all enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing it :D

Penny thought she had a good and accurate opinion of herself. She knew she wasn’t perfect, as it was impossible for anyone to be, but she strived as hard as she could to be someone who would be fondly remembered by most people. It wasn’t hard, to be fair. Penny was helpful by nature, and couldn’t bear to leave someone alone if there was something she could do to help. It turned out that most people appreciated that kind of personality, and there were many like-minded people to be found in her house, which was another boon she hadn’t predicted in her entry at Hogwarts. Nice and friendly Penny Haywood, that was her!

~~If only she knew how many people found themselves wanting to develop a different bond with her.~~

* * *

Tonks realised in the middle of herbology.

It wasn’t that she’d never noticed Penny Haywood before. Penny was the most popular girl of their year, probably the most popular student period! Her presence was unobtrusive at first, but also impossible to deny. She didn’t tend to run in the same circles as Tonks however: Penny favoured helpfulness, while Tonks was in the business of the exact opposite. Thus, while Tonks had noticed the other girl’s presence and popularity, she hadn’t really tried to get to know Penny more than that, not truly.

That herbology lesson was something different however. It wasn’t even anything special and Tonks couldn’t even remember the name of the plant they’d been working on. She’d been assigned Penny as a partner for the second time that year and hadn’t thought much of it aside from being slightly disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to get away with her usual shenanigans this time.

She was just thinking about her next prank when it happened. There was a sudden movement at the corner of her eyes, and she looked to find Penny, hands deep in the dirt, seemingly wrestling a plant into submission with what looked like remnants of spit in her hair.

Her eyes were narrowed fiercely as she blew a stray strand of hair out of her face and jerked her head toward Tonks. “A little help?” she asked, taking in deep panting breaths as she spoke. “My hands are sort of busy, so it’d be really useful if you could petrify this thing for a moment.”

Tonks had heard the words the first time, she knew she had, but all she could do was stare at Penny for a long while. Hands in the dirt, some kind of unknown fluid that probably came from that plant staining her hair, clothes mussed, eyes fierce and a gentle smile on her face, Tonks had never seen something more beautiful and radiant than in that moment.

“-Tonks!”

A shout of her name brought her back to the task at hand, and Tonks fumbled for her wand, flushing as she saw blue strands staining her hair with embarrassment. She mumbled the spell at last, and it took her about three tries before she could cast an efficient Petrificus Totalus on the plant. Penny didn’t comment on her obvious blunder, much to Tonks’ relief, but she knew she would beat herself over this moment for a while.

What a bummer, the moment she realised she had a crush and she had to humiliate herself in front of her.

* * *

Merula had only meant to ask Professor Snape a question.

She didn’t pay attention to people as a rule, not unless they were powerful enough to threaten her standing, or enough of an irritant to annoy her into reacting. She had a peripheral knowledge of everyone, of course, but that was second nature to her by then, nothing impressive.

So she had noticed Penny Haywood, of course. The Hufflepuff seemed to know everyone, and if she hadn’t been such a do-gooder Merula would have been jealous of her networking abilities. And that was the key point of it, wasn’t it? Do-gooder. Penny Haywood would never be underhanded, never lie, never cheat, and was all in all a shining example of what one expected a typical Hufflepuff to be.

Maybe that was why the scene she stumbled upon shocked her so much.

Haywood’s talent and interest for potions was well known, so it wasn’t her presence in Professor Snape’s classroom outside of normal class hours that surprised Merula. Rather, it was the presence of that thrill-seeker obsessed with the cursed vaults that was surprising. While Haywood was asking Snape questions Merula was sure she knew the answer to, the other student was snooping through Snape’s shelves, secreting ingredients into pockets with deft fingers that must have seen some practice.

All that while Haywood watched, and hurriedly directed Professor Snape’s attention away when he would make to gaze towards the troublemaker. It was done so seamlessly that Merula was sure she wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been watching.

In the end, all Merula could do was stare as the other students left Professor Snape’s classroom giggling together as soon as they were out of sight of the teacher. She stared so long she didn’t even ask her question, too busy wondering why it was that she was suddenly viewing Haywood in a new light. The fact that she’d been mistaken about the Hufflepuff’s personality should have infuriated her, and yet all she could do was find it… attractive?

* * *

Tulip discovered as she tried to prank Penny.

Well, trying wasn’t the right word: Tulip _had_ succeeded in pranking Penny. She just hadn’t predicted what the reaction to that prank would be.

The prank itself was a masterpiece, if Tulip said so herself. Which meant that it was, as she’d never been one to overinflate her own ego. It was completely harmless and not at all humiliating. Why, even professor McGonagall would have been hard pressed to find something wrong with it. It was mostly meant to mimic the effects of Wingardium Leviosa on a person, only the person would float in place a few inches off the ground instead of being directed by the caster’s wand.

Needlessly complicated to do with a potion what a first-year charm could do just as well, some might say, but Tulip had never quite gotten the handle on charms (she loved professor Flitwick, but swish-and-flick was rubbish advice and that feather always seemed to run away from her wand instead), so this was a good avenue for her. It also allowed her to claim she’d done it solely for the challenge rather than a lack of ability . That, and it was far easier to claim plausible deniability when one was caught in a prank if one wasn’t literally pointing a wand at the target.

So when Tulip saw Penny take a bite of the potion-laced cupcake she’d left on her bag, she was braced for many reactions. Surprise, disgruntlement, fear even (it would be nice to see little miss sunshine let loose). What she wasn’t prepared for was for Penny to love the prank as much as Tulip did.

As soon as she took a bite, the blonde witch’s feet left the ground, prompting a surprised gasp from her, and panicked noise from the students she was talking to. All too soon though, Penny’s shoulders began shaking ever so slightly and a delighted smile crossed her face. She laughed, a full belly laughter that drew all attention to her even as she tried and failed to stifle it. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed as she floated in the air, and then she took _another bite_ when the effects of the cupcake began to abate just to remain in the air a little more.

It was _the best_ reaction Tulip had ever gotten, and not even the fact that her potion seemed to have a slight hair colour changing effect could dampen her spirits. Penny’s laughter was contagious and when Tulip’s gaze crossed Penny’s own, she found the joy felt reflected in the Hufflepuff’s eyes begin bubbling out of her own chest until laughter burst out of it again. Honestly, how was she supposed to not fall for the other girl after that, even just a little?

* * *

Badeea really didn’t have any ulterior motives when she asked Penny to sit for her. She’d simply been looking for a new way to test her skills, and though she loved painting the various landscapes that could be found at Hogwarts, she thought she might as well try something new this time. Penny didn’t offer a new idea persee, but she did compliment Badeea’s painting right as she was pondering trying something new, so it seemed natural to offer to paint her.

And Badeea wasn’t naïve. She knew about the amount of girls who had a crush on Penny; for all that she wasn’t a gossip, she was a good listener and had a quiet presence that often made her privy to secrets she might not have otherwise known. She might have even (possibly) been nursing a quiet crush on Penny herself, but it really had nothing to do with her decision to paint the other girl, so surely she didn’t need to mention it. She could paint Penny like any other regular human being.

Still, Badeea really should have expected it. She’d gotten used to drawing scenery, and that was for a very good reason. Scenery stayed still, didn’t require conversation, and there was none of the usual awkwardness inherent to being silent in the presence of another person. So Badeea _had_ known, and yet it still took her by surprise.

Painting Penny felt… surprisingly intimate. Badeea had chosen a secluded corner of the school for their session, knowing that they would be needlessly interrupted if she painted in the clocktower courtyard as was customary for her. It hadn’t hit when she’d chosen the place that it would mean staying alone with Penny for a significant amount of time. 

Painting was obviously an intimate perspective, even if the subject was entirely dressed, and Badeea couldn’t help but pay attention to every part of Penny’s anatomy. As she painted, she noticed every little detail and went over them again and again as she tried to reproduce them faithfully on her canvas. The gentle curve of Penny’s lips, the unexpected crease of her brow when a stray thought crossed her mind, the way the sun hit her eyes as it lit up the sky over the forbidden forest…

Feeling flustered by the continuous silence for the first time since she’d decided to take up painting, Badeea opened her mouth to say… Something, she didn’t know what.

“Feel free to talk, you know, there’s no need to hold yourself back on my account.”

Her voice was thankfully level as she spoke, but the Ravenclaw had to pull her hand away from her painting for fear of ruining it when Penny directed an incandescent smile at her.

“Oh, thank you!” she said, the same joy radiating through her voice. “I didn’t want to bother you, but I wouldn’t want to just talk at you either. It takes two to make a conversation after all, doesn’t it?”

Badeea made an encouraging sound as she pretended to focus on a detail of her painting. The canvas allowed her to remain hidden until the flush on her cheeks subsided, and she eventually managed to look back at Penny, feeling a similar smile grow on her own face. With such a thoughtful attitude, was it surprising that she’d began developing a crush on Penny?

"Sure!" she replied, cheerful with the knowledge that Penny was just as kind up close as she was from afar.

Over the course of a few sessions, Badeea felt more and more relaxed with Penny. The other talked about everything and nothing at first, but she still prompted answers from Badeea and listened to them rather than simply using them as placeholders from which to launch her own monologues. She seemed interested by everything Badeea was saying, and had started seeking her out outside of their sessions, and Badeea could literally feel them growing closer to each other.

It almost made her want to keep her painting incomplete, just so she could have an excuse to spend more time with Penny. As she put the last finishing touches on her canvas though, Badeea knew she couldn't pretend not to be finished anymore. She bit her lip as she put her paintbrushes down and exhaled nervously as she adjusted a pin on her hijab. 

"I'm done," she announced, fighting off a smile as she saw Penny lean forward in anticipation. She continued before the other girl could speak though, afraid of losing her nerve if she let herself stall anymore. "Um, before I show you the painting, I wanted to ask you something."

Unable to keep her hands still, Badeea began arranging her paintbrushes by size, hoping the mindless motions would help her settle somewhat.

"Sure?" Penny said, sounding confused. "I mean, yes, ask away!"

One deep breath, two, and Badeea launched herself into the short spiel she'd prepared. "You're very nice, and kind, and pretty," she began, the words stumbling out of her mouth and absolutely not in the organised way she'd planned over the previous days. "I mean, everyone must tell you that, but I just wanted to say that I noticed, and that I really like your smiles, and those big laughs you get when I accidentally say something funny, and I like spending time with you even outside of painting you, and I just-"

There she had to take a deep breath, both because she was running out of air and because of what came next. "And I would really like to go out with you. Like a date," she specified, just in case it wasn't clear enough. "Because I like you."

Penny didn’t seem closed to the idea, which did settle Badeea’s nerves somewhat. Her bafflement was a tad strange though, especially since Badeea was the one somewhat anxiously awaiting an answer.

Penny shook herself and hurried to answer. “Yes! I- Sorry- yes, of course I want to go out with you!”

Her hands were flailing in a stilted fashion as she spoke, almost like she was trying to restrain herself. Badeea let out a sigh of relief. She had known Penny would have been kind no matter her decision, but… She offered Penny a shy smile as she nervously adjusted her hijab around her neck. It was still nice to have the answer she desired.

“Good,” Badeea said, the word settling the reality of things in her head.

“Good, yeah,” Penny repeated, before taking a breath and releasing it like she’d just completed some sort of accomplishment. “Wow I’ve never had a girl ask me out before,” she continued as though to explain herself. “I guess I just thought I wasn’t girls’ type.”

The baffling statement was followed by burst of self-deprecating laughter as Badeea stared at Penny in disbelief. There was no way Penny could be serious, surely someone else had tried?

“I know that you made at least _five_ girls realise they weren’t straight, and I haven’t even spoken more than two sentences to most of them.”

“You- I _what_??”

Oh, so Badeea really was the first one to have tried her chance with Penny. She smiled helplessly, fighting the urge to hide her face as Penny seemed to struggle with the idea that a lot of people wanted to date her. None of them would get the chance though, Badeea thought with satisfaction, because she had gotten there first and she planned to be the last.


End file.
